Beast of Burden
by Thalius
Summary: John's only been back for a few weeks and he is already determined not to take any downtime. Blue Team employs their resident giant to do some Spartan-wrangling. Set just after H4 in an AU where Sam is definitely totally still alive.


**AN: **this was written for an anon on tumblr (which btw you can find me on there under the name sledposting!). I'm a lot more active there and post a bunch of fics that I don't post here.

Also just wanted to say a big huge thank you to everyone whose been reviewing/faving my stuff lately! you guys are great!

* * *

It was difficult to stop herself from checking her comm every five seconds even though she knew Blue Team would alert her the moment they found John.

Kelly stepped into one of the upper deck officer's mess halls and ignored the staring. Lasky had given John official clearance to use all commissioned facilities on _Infinity_ with the reasoning that he had so many recommendations from senior brass in his service jacket to commission that he was already treated as a de-facto officer.

She knew he wouldn't be in here, but she checked anyway. A quick visual sweep of the chow hall confirmed that, and she updated Blue Team's map by greying out the room. She saw Fred and Linda's most recent rooms also grey out soon after.

That meant they only had... six hundred twenty four decks to go. Kelly sighed. She thought about yelling at Roland again. It wouldn't amount to anything, since privacy blackouts by senior naval personnel were only lifted in the event of their imminent demise, but it would be cathartic.

Then Sam's room winked green.

She stepped out of the chow hall and made for the elevator banks. "Sam?" she said into her comm. He'd been searching Spartan Town, and the room he indicated on their map was one of the gyms. It was such an obviously open area she hadn't actually thought John would be bold enough to go there. He should've been spotted by med techs and ordered back to the infirmary in under sixty seconds.

She also knew better than to underestimate his ability to shirk medical advice when it didn't suit him, no matter how insistent.

"_I got him," _Sam replied, though he sounded like he was under some duress. "_Mostly."_

She heard John arguing with him before Sam's mic cut off, and she couldn't help the grin that spread across her face.

She sent a congratulatory thumbs up to all of them, and saw that Fred and Linda were also making their way back down to S-Deck. Her foot tapped impatiently on the floor as the lift slowly descended.

She was the first to arrive to the gyms despite how sluggish the elevator had been, and the doors opened up into the expansive exercise facilities of Spartan Town. Sam was making his way towards her, with John clamped under one of his arms. To say everyone on the deck was rubbernecking at the display would be an understatement.

As she approached she saw the others converging behind her. Sam would be bruised all up and down the right side of his abdomen and ribs by tomorrow with the amount that John was struggling, but when he spotted Kelly he stilled beneath Sam's massive arm.

"The gyms?" she asked him incredulously, unsure whether to laugh or start yelling. He'd opened the stitches on his cheek, presumably trying to fight off Sam. "Really?"

He had the decency to look sheepish, exacerbated by the deep, rustling cough that followed. "I wanted to—" He cleared his throat to continue, but the only thing that came out was another cough.

"Right." She compromised by flicking him in the forehead, for which she received an icy blue glare, and then looked up at Sam. "Let's go."

"Aye-aye," he replied, hefting John further up so that his side was directly under Sam's armpit. John struggled again, landing a knee to Sam's back, but Sam barely seemed to notice.

Kelly turned to see Fred frowning and Linda smiling at the sight. The relief rolling off them was palpable.

* * *

"You can put me down," John complained from Sam's arm, interrupting the stream of reprimands he was receiving from everyone in the lift.

"I'm not an idiot," Sam told him, grinning down at his friend. John glowered back at him.

"There's four of you and one of me."

"Glad to know you're still healthy enough to count."

"I'm healthy enough to—" His point was undercut by another coughing fit.

"Sounds real healthy," Linda mused.

"So healthy he's probably infected half the Spartans on S-Deck," Fred cut in.

"I'm not contagious anymore," John argued.

"Absolutely not the point," Kelly said, her tone hard enough that everyone looked at her, including John. "You blacked out your location." _From us_ was left unsaid, but John's expression still fell.

"I'm _fine," _he insisted. "I haven't done PT in a week because of a cold—"

Kelly's glare sharpened. "And extensive burns. And chronic exhaustion. And a third-degree cryo rash. And bruising over sixty percent of your body. And—"

"And I've done more with worse," he replied. "The techs are treating me like gl—"

"You're not twenty anymore." Kelly stepped closer, which forced John to crane his neck in order to look at her. Sam was sure that was intentional. "And you don't need to push yourself that hard. The War's over."

"I know that—"

Their conversation was interrupted when the elevator doors opened. Sam waited as Fred stepped out first, followed by Kelly, then him, then Linda. Spartans usually weren't assigned escort detail, but no one needed to be told what to do.

John recognised the formation and sighed deeply, his breath fluttering. It was a short walk to the Spartan infirmary, and they received no less open staring than they had in the gyms. Even when they entered the medbay proper, several nurses did double-takes at the three Spartans standing in a loose diamond around Sam with John under his arm.

One of them recovered a few seconds quicker than the others, and her shock dissolved into satisfaction. "Thank you for bringing him back."

"You were sent on a mission to find me," John said. It wasn't a question.

"We had enough latitude to take the initiative," Fred replied over his shoulder before stepping aside for the nurse. For the first time since they'd begun this manhunt, he finally looked relaxed. "Seeing as you're a hazard to yourself."

John was fuming under Sam's arm. He shifted John's weight again, suppressing a wince at all the fresh bruises John had landed before he'd successfully captured him, and looked down at his friend. "If I let you stand, will you cooperate?"

"Obviously."

Sam grinned and let John get his feet under him, though he did make a show of giving him ample support to stand, which only soured John's foul mood further. Then Sam slapped him on the back and gestured to the nurse. "Go on. You're in good hands."

"Finally," John muttered under his breath, his final stand against the tyranny of being hauled across two decks like a sack of wet cement.

This time it was Linda who flicked him.


End file.
